THE LINK Fiftieth Anniversary Number June, 1950 MISS FINE’S SCHOOL The first part of this L ink is dedicated to the rnemon of Miss Fine, and contains a tribute to her and a brief history of the school. Portrait by Ipseu (1932) MAY MARGARET FINE Founder of Miss f ine’s School and Its Headmistress, 1899-1933 "Into Her Spirit's Likeness” In 1899 when May Margaret Fine opened, as the announcement termed it, “The Princeton School for girls and young boys,” Princeton and its neighboring countryside had a population of less than 5,000. But the college village was feeling the stirrings of growth. The telephone exchange had sixty subscribers and tracks were being laid for the trolley line to Trenton. Princeton L niversity, invigorated by its sesqui- centennial celebration, was beginning to flourish as never before. And the intellectual atmosphere and peaceful life of Princeton were already attracting attention to it as a place to reside. (Most distinguished of the recent newcomers who had felt its charm were Mr. and Mrs. Grover Cleveland whose children were to join Miss Fine’s classes.) Considering the development of the community and the character of its inhabitants, it W'as inevitable that a demand should arise for a school where children might receive the benefit of individualized instruction and obtain a sound scholastic background for their college work and for life itself. The group of parents who were spokesmen for this demand did not have to look far for its fulfillment— and the manner of that fulfillment proved to be all that they, or any other parents, could have asked. May Margaret Fine had taught in Germantown and. for the last two years, had been engaged in the private preparation for college of a small group of girls in Princeton. Thus a teacher for the school was at hand. The success of the teacher and the school probably seemed, at that time, more in the realm of hope than of certainty. But looking back, it is easy to see that it was foreordained. For Miss Fine had grown up in a family to whom education was more important than creature comforts. Although the resources of her mother, the widow of a minister, were meagre, Miss Fine went to Wellesley, her two brothers to Princeton, and the later careers of all three were to be significant in the history of American education. Her older brother, Henry Burchard Fine, was to help raise American mathematics from a low estate to a parity with that of Europe and was to be responsible, as President Wilson’s dean of the faculty and Presi< lent 11 ibben’s dean of the departments of science, for Princeton I niversity’s eminence in scientific instruction and research. Under the guidance of her second brother, John B. Fine, the reputation of Princeton Preparatory School, as an institution which had a hidden genius for developing responsibility in its students, was to become countrywide. Miss Fine, herself, though engaged in a smaller sphere than either of her brothers, was to add new lustre to the private school tradition of intimate teaching, which is bounded neither by the page of the textbook nor the door of the classroom, but carries learning into life and life into learning. “We were all daughters whom she loved,” a former pupil once said, “and in whose interest she spent every day in the year." And so, in the fall of 1899, Miss Fine, for the purpose of conducting the school, took the house at 42 Mercer Street on the corner of the street which had been newly renamed Alexander, although inhabitants still referred to it as Canal. Miss Fine carried on the instruction of the older pupils almost single-handedly, teaching mathematics and the classics and, at the necessary intervals, as one of her pupils has recalled, “tending the furnace herself.” For assistance, particularly in the teaching of French and German, she had the services of the governess of the daughters of the Woodrow Wilsons, who, needless to say, sent their children to Miss Fine’s School. From this simple, hut by no means ineffectual, beginning. Miss Fine’s School grew, keeping pace with the community. During the process a larger building became necessary and it was moved in 1909 to a house on land which has since been acquired by Trinity Church. Still growing, Miss Fine’s School in 1918 purchased its present home, the former Princeton Inn, erected in 1893 and described in its early advertising as “a charming resort situated in a wooded park of seven acres, in the midst of the beautiful university town, heated throughout with steam and open wood fires.” By this time the School had grown to be a large business enterprise. Finding that her teaching was being distracted by financial cares and having no desire to make money, Miss Fine incorporated the School on a non-profit basis and asked a group of her friends to serve as trustees; they assumed the financial management, paying her a modest annual salary, most of which she surreptitiously put back into the School. Thus, save in its corporate structure, the School remained Miss Fine’s and, though it now had a corps of excellent teachers, to a large degree Miss Fine remained the School. “In every one of us,” a pupil said, “there was the firm conviction, and rightly so, that our particular problem and future careers were Miss Fine’s chief concern.” “Her eager interest,’’ a member of the staff recalls, “followed her girls into all the ways of their lives, not only while they were with her, but always. She knew and cared about what happened to them and to their families. She remembered every joy and every grief, and all the little facts that go to make a family history.” May Margaret Fine died in 1933 at the age of 64. While, at her quite typical behest, the School was closed for only one day— the day of her funeral— her death was deeply felt throughout Princeton. She was. Princeton I niversitv's own beloved Dean Andrew Fleming West said, “one of the very few who have done most to make Princeton a better and happier place to live in. Her wrise methods, persevering efforts, competent scholarship, skillful teaching, unselfish devotion and deep spirituality combined to give her a quiet, persuasive and elevating influence over the minds and hearts of all. By her death Princeton is much poorer as by her example it is much richer in the better things of human life. ' And John H. Finley, editor of the New York Times, penned a little verse which ended: . So was the School Under her wise and penile rule A place where happy children grew Into her spirit’s likeness, too. ’ From "To May Margaret Fine In Appreciation,” published by the Fiftieth Anniversary Committee, 1947. MISS FINE AND A GROUP OF HER OLDER GIRLS, SPRING OF 1900 Front row, left to right: Louise Willson. Marie Baker, Mildred Purves I deceased), Elizabeth Johnston. Second row: Katharine Stockton. Maud Morrison, Miss Fine, Elinor Purves, Elsie Libbey. Charlotte Baker. Third row: Isabel Johnston. Lucy Macdonald, Kebekah Purves, Edith Johnston (deceased). Events in Celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary Year Inter-School Student Council Forum, at Miss Fine’s School, on Saturday afternoon, December third, 1949 “Does Student Government Prepare for Democracy?” Moderator: Miss Eileen Martinson of the New York Times Youth Forum, Station WQXR Lecture by Millicent C. McIntosh. Dean of Barnard College Thursday evening, May fourth, 1950 at 50 McCosh Hall, Princeton University “The Independent Day School as a Preparation for Living” An Historical Pageant in Celebration of May Day on the school grounds on Wednesday, May seventeenth. 1950 Fiftieth Anniversary Exercises at the school on Thursday, June eighth. 1950 (Memorial Service to May Margaret Fine) SHIRLEY DAVIS Headmistress . beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.” I C o r in t h ia n s , XIII The Class of 1950 gratefully dedicates this L ink to FRANCES ALICE KLEEMAN in appreciation of her gifted musicianship, her inspiring teaching, and her personal interest in all of her students. “Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.”. P roverbs, 3, 17 THE LINK BOARD Front row, lejt to right: Wood, Petrone. Second row: E. Rosenblad, Fleming, W. McAneny, Mrs. Shepherd, Fenn, J. Butler, Elgin. Third row: Jamieson, Maull, Mountford, G. McAllen, Potter. ®lje |aitk MISS FINE’S SCHOOL Vol. XXX JUNE, 1950 No. 1 BOARD OF EDITORS Wendy McAneny ’50 .............................................................................................. Editor-in-Chiej Sarah Ff.nn ’50 ........................................................................................................ Assistant Editor Janet Butler 50 \ Literary Editors A n g e l in e F l e m in g ’50 j Alice Elgin ’50 ................................................................................................... Business Manager Ellen Wood ’50 ............................................................................................ Advertising Manager Sue Petrone ’50 ............................................................................................................... Photography Mrs. Shepherd ........................................................................................................ Faculty Adviser P o l l y J a m ie s o n ’50 S a l ly M o u n t f o r d ’50 Sally Potter ’50 I ............................................................................................................. Staff E bba R o se n b l a d ’50 D ia n a M a i l l ’51 G o r d o n M cA l l e n ’51 TABLE OF CONTENTS S e n io r F a r e w e l l ...............................................................................................................................